Letter: Marijuana cures

It cures cancer too? Hard to believe, I know. Because, like most Americans, I always thought cannabis had a few medical benefits for things like glaucoma, migraines, nausea and loss of appetite. But now it's been shown to work for epilepsy, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Anything else? Let's find out. Into the "way back machine" (Google) to play a round of "Name That Affliction."

In 1,000 B.C. China, it was used to treat and cure rabies, rheumatism, asthma, malaria and convulsions. In 600 B.C. India: Gout, cholera, dysentery, opiate addiction and leprosy! Yes, they were curing leprosy with cannabis oil way before Jesus was doing it with the holy-anointing-oil (the early Hebrew bible has the recipe, "kanah-bosun" mixed with olive oil, a mixture that people still use today).

Europe in the Middle Ages: Muscle spasms, insomnia, tetanus and fevers. Said to be Queen Victoria's preferred treatment for menstrual cramps. And in the U.S., until the early 1900s, it was in half of all the over-the-counter medicines sold in pharmacies. The United States Pharmacopeia listed cannabis as the treatment for a hundred different ailments, including insomnia, ulcers, anxiety, depression, alcoholism, high blood pressure, lesions and open sores. And more recently, diabetes, emphysema, muscular dystrophy, anorexia, lupus, autism, Crohn's, Parkinson's and even Alzheimer's. And now it's curing cancer! How in the world can it do all these things?

Here's the answer: Over the past decades, the plant's chemical compounds, known as cannabinoids, were being isolated and researched. But it wasn't until the 1990s when it was discovered that we produce the same compounds in our own bodies, and that our brains and organs have cannabinoid receptors that depend on these endogenous cannabinoids (our "Endo-Cannabinoid System") to help relay and regulate information between cells.

Simply put, if too much information is getting through to the brain and causing seizures, the cannabinoids act to turn these down. Loss of appetite? The cannabinoids turn up the signal to stimulate appetite. This is why cannabis has been effective at treating such a wide range of ailments. Basically, it "repairs" the body by enabling communication to-and-from the brain and it modulates the activity in our immune system and organs. It also attaches to cancer cells and induces them to die a natural death instead of replicating.

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Note: We're not talking about smoking cannabis, but rather ingesting the concentrated oil or applying the oil topically for skin cancer, lesions and burns. Look into it. I'll post a few links where you can review the scientific evidence and learn how to make your own oil in order to cure, well, just about anything that ails you.